er, me.  bugger

so, whats new in my world?

1.  Its got cold.

A feet numbing kind of cold.  Infact it’s almost record breakingly cold in Perth.  We’ve had a couple of frosts this week and night time temps have generally been around 1 or 2 degrees all week.  I know, I know, its not exactly cold compared to Europe or the US this winter, but remember that our houses aren’t really insulated, we don’t have central heating or double glazing, as normally, the temperature is in the teens or higher.

We do have ducted gas heating, but it’s way too expensive to run – last year, winter cost us $1500 in gas, so that got switched off and out came the blankets until it got so cold that we gave in and bought a wood-fired heater.

A big pot belly stove now sits, roaring in the corner of the open plan, kicking out no heat whatsoever until I get up and light it.  So I still have cold feet, but later in the day, the house is well toasty.  And it chews through wood like it’s going out of fashion.  2 trailer loads and 3 20kg bags and it’s only been a few weeks – it might not be cheaper to run than the gas at this rate, but I do get to play with matches, so that makes it worth it.

2.  Work.

I’ve actually had some.  Quite a lot and multiple projects too, which I must confess (to any potential employers) I find kinda challenging.  Not the work bit, it’s the multi-tasking context switching bit.  My job is normally quite involved and detailed and requires a lot of analytical thinking – I find I need time to settle my brain into the zone and then I can do what I need.  If I have to keep jumping in and out of different trains of thought, everything takes 4 times longer.  Well, not 4 times, but you get the idea.  I have a 10 minute window where my concentration ebbs away, so if I can get back to my zone within that window, then we’re all good, but if not, I have to come back up for air, change the air in the tanks and begin the long journey back into the depths of the ‘zone’

3.  Busy.

Although I cannot for the life of me remember doing what.  So here’s a photo of a kid with a mullet that I saw wandering around the DIY store.  His Dad had one too. And the smaller son had twin plaited rats tails.  Classy.  I am in Australia, not West Virginia or someplace aren’t I?  People of Walmart, eat your heart out!

Oh yeah, just remembered whats been taking the time every weekend so that I haven’t been anywhere – gardening – had to rip out a load of stuff from next to the fence cos its broken.  Fences here are stupid – they’re big sheets of fibreboardy stuff that are actually dug into the ground then joined together at the top with a metal bracket.  When they break (as they do), they have to be dug out with a special machine and new ones put in place.  So all the plants (massive honeysuckle and a big creepery thing) along a 20 metre section have had to come out.  I now have a pile of cuttings 3 metres tall and 5 meters around to be fed into a chipper that I don’t have the funds to buy just yet.

Plus I’m painting the girl’s bedrooms at the moment – a nice shade of lilac with a deeper colour accent wall (their choice, I blame their mother and her arty ways).  That was pretty much the whole of this Sunday and last night (and I foresee every night this week) taken up

So that’s taken up lots of time.  No slacking for me after all then 😉

4.  Photos.

Precious little of that recently due to the mysterious loss of time due to the above point 3.  However, I do have a few pics to show and tell.

reflections

sunset

So there you go 🙂

Next post – my lovely new camera!  Oh yes.